Sin of
Reuben

Bible Study Lessons from
Genesis 35:16-29

The
Bible
study lesson for
today is about how the sin of Reuben came back to
haunt him after many years had passed.

This is always the hardest
part of being
a Christian - dealing
with our shortcomings.

We most likely will never
commit acts as extreme as Reuben but God sees sin
as sin.

He didn't get away with it -
and neither do we.

Reuben
Sleeps with Bilhah

It came about while
Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben
went and lay with Bilhah his fathers
concubine, and Israel heard of it. -
Genesis
35:22 NASB

The
Things We Do

As we see in these verses,
Reuben did not see the consequence of his sin and,
as far as he was concerned, the deed was done and
forgotten. It is only mentioned casually
here.

But, when Jacob
(Israel)
called all his sons to him on his death bed, the
sin once again raised its ugly head.

A bit of
History

As the first born son, Reuben
stood to inherit a double portion of the
inheritance and he was to be a leader among his
people.

Sin Always
Comes Back

The sin of sleeping with
Jacob's concubine, Bilhah came back to haunt Reuben
when Jacob later gave his double portion to someone
else because of that one mistake.

The same is true of our sins.
When we do something that displeases God, there is
a good chance it also affects other
people.

It might not be clear today,
or even next year, but at some point down the road
it will surface.

A Lesson
Learned?

I pray that we can learn a
lesson from Reuben's behavior to use in our lives.

Now, this doesn't mean that
we will never sin (we always will) but maybe we can
take a moment of pause to think about the
consequences of our actions before we decide to do
things that might harm others.